British companies save a minimum of £10 million a year for every 1,000 jobs they move offshore, particularly to India, an estimate by ICICI OneSource, an outsourcing agency of India's ICICI Bank said.

As India produces more graduates per year than any other underdeveloped nation in the world, most call center advisers are aged between 20 and 25, said the Daily Telegraph, which quoted the ICICI study for its report on outsourcing.

Sean Egan, chief operating officer for offshore services at Norwich Union's parent company Aviva, said cheaper labour was not the only reason for companies turning to India.

"The work ethic is tremendous. It is partly cultural and reinforced by the education system and values," he said.

"They have a high competitive attitude and status is much more important. Everyone knows what everyone earns."

The Telegraph report said that according to Britain's Communication Workers Union, 33 large companies, including Barclays, British Airways, Lloyds TSB, Prudential and Reuters, have collectively outsourced 52,000 jobs serving UK customers to India.

Norwich Union, Britain's largest insurer, has built up a workforce of 3,700 people in India and plans to hike it to 7,000 by 2007, the report said.

Three years ago consultants Accenture reckoned 65,000 jobs in Britain's insurance industry alone would be moved overseas over the next decade but many experts now believe that figure to be conservative.

Trade union Amicus has predicted that 200,000 jobs could be outsourced by 2010.